Dear kindred in Christ,
I’ve been thinking about what it means to celebrate Christmas as disciples of Jesus in a way that goes beyond the saccharine sentimentality that this season often evokes, and I thought about the Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, which asks God to “purify our conscience” so that our life together might become a home for Jesus at his return. “Those who love me will keep my word,” Jesus said, “and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23)… in other words, “Abide in me, as I abide in you” (John 15:4).
All this talk of abiding and being at home in one another reminds us that the Incarnation (and indeed salvation) is all about communion, with God and each other. The divine presence dwelling with humans. Heaven and earth connected permanently. Our hearts as a home for God and finding their home in God. Jesus in us and God in Jesus, that we may become completely one (John 17:23). During Advent we pray that we would be made ready to welcome God fully and participate in this communion.
This past Sunday, we heard about the God-welcomer par excellence: Mary the Mother of Jesus, who consenting to a frightening, dangerous word from an angel that she would bear the Messiah. Despite her low social status, poverty, and confusion, she embraced her authority and agency and replied, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). God couldn’t take on flesh without the welcoming consent of this remarkable woman. Or, as author K.J. Ramsey put it once, “The Word became flesh through the womb of a woman.”
17th century German poet, Franciscan priest, physician and mystic Angelus Selesius wrote, “Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem—but all in vain until He is born in me.” Let us follow the example of Mary this Christmas season, and consent to Christ being “born” in us anew this Christmas. What would it look like for you to “make room” in your life this Christmas for the presence and word of Jesus to challenge and transform you in deeper ways? How can we together live into the call to become a home for God on the earth?
This Christmas and beyond, let’s continue to live into these questions and shape our life together in response to the presence and word of Christ in our midst. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Ben
